This invention relates to ear-piercing devices and, more particularly, to an ear-piercing cartridge and stud gun system with a stackable packing box for the cartridge.
Ear piercing is increasingly becoming a commonplace fashion statement. In the past, ear piercing has been a procedure performed by a doctor or other medical practitioner, such as a nurse. Increasingly, more routine procedures are used to pierce ears. Such procedures are often performed by laypersons without medical experience or training. To this end, a number of approaches and designs have been made to provide simple, manually operated devices that allow for the safer, hygienic, user-friendly piercing of ears.
Examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,343 issued to Reil on Mar. 5, 1996, application Ser. No. 292,249 filed Aug. 18, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,170 issued to Reil on Aug. 11, 1998, application Ser. No. 754,411 filed Nov. 21, 1996, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,774 issued to Reil on Feb. 9, 1999, application Ser. No. 8,763 filed Jan. 19, 1998, all of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
The Reil ""774 Patent describes the latest ear-piercing system in the evolution towards developing a simple, easy to use, safer, hygienic, user-friendly, manually operated device. The ""774 Patent describes an ear-piercing apparatus that is comprised of an earring cartridge which holds an earring stud and an earring nut in two opposed jaws, i.e., an earring jaw and a nut jaw. The stud is held within a stud post holder assembly (also called xe2x80x9cpierced-ear earring cartridgexe2x80x9d in the Reil ""774 Patent), which is a module that disassembles into two pieces. One of these pieces has a frangible and breakable tab at its rear.
Although, the ""774 Patent describes a simple, easy to use ear-piercing system, when it is used to pierce an ear, the two pieces of the stud post holder assembly may stay attached to the stud and sometimes require manual removal from the earring. Further, on occasions when the two pieces come off the stud, they fall out of the assembly, sometimes into the ear or onto the body of the subject whose ears are being pierced and at other times onto the floor.
Moreover, the reliance of tie ""774 Patent on the frangible tab has design limitations. First, the breaking of the tab causes an unwanted noise that is often a source of distress or concern for the customer. Second, the use of the frangible tab leads to only discrete control over the ear-piercing process. In the invention of the ""774 Patent, when the earring assembly is squeezed, either holding it in a hand or mounted in an ear-piercing gun, the presence of the frangible tab implies that once the earring assembly is squeezed to the point of breaking the tab, the ear is pierced automatically. Thus, it prevents continuous control of the exact location and timing of the ear-piercing process.
Additionally, the ear-piercing system of the ""774 Patent and its predecessors have not been designed to provide consistent ear piercing with hinged hoop earrings, which is an important product in the ear-piercing market.
Finally, the ""774 Patent discloses a sterilizable blister pack for storing and transporting the earring cartridge. While such a packing is a convenient, effective sterilizable packing for the cartridge, it does not provide rigid, vertical stackable storage for earring cartridges.
The present invention solves the preceding problems, representing a quantum improvement in the design and operation of ear-piercing systems.
In a general embodiment, the present invention is an earring cartridge and stud gun system for providing sterile ear piercing comprising an earring cartridge carrying a stud having a post in a stud post holder assembly and a nut in slidably aligned, spaced apart, and oppositely opposed placement so that an ear part may be placed between the post and the nut for piercing wherein a torque-like force is produced on the stud post holder assembly causing the assembly to rotatably open when the earring cartridge is compressed to bring the stud towards the nut for engaging the post with the nut. The rotatable opening of the stud post holder assembly facilitates the disengagement of the assembly from the earring stud after the stud has connected to the nut, eliminating the need to touch the ears of the customer to confirm the stud-nut connection or to remove the assembly after the ear piercing is completed.
In a preferred embodiment, the earring cartridge comprises a nut jaw for holding the nut and an earring jaw for holding the stud post holder assembly, which carries the stud. The assembly is in two halves with each half having a front stud head adaptor, a main body and an L-shaped terminal member having a base and a leg. The terminal members ride in intermediate channels in the earring jaw and when the earring cartridge is squeezed the main body of the post holder assembly slides over a flexible tang and the base of the terminal members slides over a hump attached to the tang.
The invention also provides for convenient hygienic transport and storage of the cartridge in the form of a stackable packing box which contains a robust seal to maintain the cartridge in a sterile environment.
If the invention is used with a stud gun, the earring cartridge is used by placement while loading within the cradle of the gun, the cradle receiving and removing the earring cartridge from the stackable packing box to provide and maintain the stud and the nut assembly in an aligned position for piercing the ear without any necessity of coming in direct contact with the sterile earring cartridge with the hands of the operator.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a more effective means by which ears may be pierced. In particular, the present invention seeks to provide an ear-piercing system in which the stud holding module separates from the stud cleanly as soon as the ear is pierced. Further, the present invention provides a system whereby the components of the stud holder module remain within the earring cartridge after an ear is pierced. This eliminates the possibility of the module components falling into the ear or body of the subject being pierced or onto the floor, forcing the ear piercer to look for them following the ear piercing operation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a higher level of accuracy for ear-piercing by means that are more controllable and more expertly handled by persons without the requirement of a high degree of training. In particular, the present invention seeks to provide an ear-piercing system that can be finely controlled by the ear-piercer whereby the ear-piercer need not commit to piercing an ear until they are completely certain that they want to.
Further, the invention seeks to provide an effective ear-piercing system in which hinged hoop earrings can be utilized.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an ear-piercing methodology that creates, protects and maintains sterile ear-piercing instruments prior to the actual piercing.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide sterilizable and sterile means by which the disposable, one-use, ear-piercing cartridges may be transported and stored in a sterile condition until ready for use.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a hand-held stud gun that can engage an earring cartridge to better control the cartridge during the ear-piercing process.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a sterilizable and sterile stackable packing boxes that facilitates engagement and disengagement by an earring cartridge with a stud gun and which earring cartridge is resistant to reuse to ensure that the same is not reused.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from a review of the following specification and accompanying drawings.